The present invention relates to apparatus for manipulating sheets of paper or the like, and more particularly to improvements in apparatus for converting a series of successive sheets into successive rows wherein the sheets at least substantially fully overlap each other.
It is already known to employ in such apparatus a first transporting unit including an endless belt or chain conveyor which carries one or more pairs of sheet confining members and advances such confining members along an endless path past a sheet feeding station where a second transporting unit delivers successive sheets of the series into the space between a pair of neighboring confining members. The confining members which flank the growing row of sheets advance along their path and the fully grown row is removed from such path downstream of the second transporting unit. It is also known to design the second transporting unit in such a way that it delivers sheets along a vertical or nearly vertical path from above and into the space between those confining members which advance along the sheet feeding station. Reference may be had to commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,531 to Hans Muller, to Swiss Pat. No. 574,861 and to British Pat. No. 1,527,515. A drawback of heretofore known apparatus of the above outlined character is that the frequency at which they accumulate rows of at least substantially fully overlapping sheets is too low. Furthermore, the presently known apparatus are rather complex, bulky and prone to malfunction.